3 Kreuzer

Konstanz struck this issue during the opening years of the Thirty Years' War, when the collapse of reliable coinage across the Holy Roman Empire triggered a speculative minting frenzy known as the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — literally the "see-saw time," named for the scales used to cull full-weight coins from circulation. Municipal mints across the Empire debased their output aggressively to profit from arbitrage, and Konstanz was no exception. The city's position on Lake Constance, straddling the border between Habsburg and Swiss interests, gave its coinage unusually wide local circulation despite its small denominational value.